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	Church Should Stand with Abuse Victims By Helen Ubinas Hartford Courant January 9, 2011 http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-ubinas-0109-20110109,0,2689097.column Certainly there is some finality in the recent death of former Bridgeport priest Laurence Brett. At least now, the notorious pedophile can't hurt anyone else. But that's not the end of it — not by a long shot. Left behind is a trail of victims from Connecticut to California whose lives were irrevocably damaged by a priest who was allowed to abuse dozens of young men — that we know of. And then evade justice in the Caribbean until his death on Christmas. "It brings back lots and lots of memories," said Frank Martinelli, a former altar boy who was abused by Brett in the early 1960s while he was pastor at St. Cecilia's parish in Stamford. "But what it really brought into sharp focus is how much more the church needs to do on the issue of clergy abuse." The skillfully crafted statement from the Diocese of Bridgeport in response to Brett's death, Martinelli said, just reinforces that. "The whole thing is a tragedy in terms of the young lives that he abused and his own difficulties in life and the apparent tragic way that he died," said diocese spokesman Brian Wallace "The church prays for all sinners whether it is one of our own or a person on death row. We will pray for the repose of his soul." OK. But for everything that has been said and done, we still have the issue of the souls of those who will never get any resolution from what they suffered at the hands of Father Brett. The church didn't just fail to hold Brett accountable. They protected him. They sent him away under the guise of some phantom case of hepatitis and then let him loose on more innocent young men in New Mexico, Sacramento and Baltimore, where Brett continued his serial sexual abuse. And then he bolted to the Caribbean, where fellow priests helped finance his exotic lifestyle and young men were seen entering his home. The priests who helped him were eventually removed from their parish to do penance, but are now pastors in good standing. An unbelievable slap on the wrists for showing more loyalty to a pedophile than the vulnerable children he hurt — and yet more than Brett ever paid for his crimes. Other than being kicked out of the priesthood in 2002, Brett was never brought to justice for sexual abuse and bolting from the law. And now he's dead and the church prays for the pedophile's soul. Many, including Martinelli, have settled with the diocese for undisclosed amounts. But what they've never gotten is the kind of acknowledgement of wrongdoing and neglect that they want, and deserve, and that the church continues to have a hard time giving. It's what Frank Martinelli wants — and not just for himself, but for all Brett's victims, those who've come forward and those who haven't. And for the Catholic faithful who've had their beliefs shaken by the global clergy abuse scandal. Maybe one day the church will stop listening to its high-paid publicists and attorneys more worried about liability than decency and finally do the right thing. Maybe it wiill stop dodging culpability and accountability and finally stand with the young men whose trust, and faith, they broke. Now that, I will pray for.
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